ROCKVILLE, Md. — Warren Weinstein’s wife was hanging yellow ribbons on her block and praying for his safe return around the same time he was killed in a US drone strike, neighbors told The Post on Friday.

Elaine Weinstein, 71, and some friends went up and down her suburban block tying the markers in front of every home — as she still held out hope the al Qaeda hostage would come home alive.

“You see this ribbon here? It’s to remember him. The family put that around all the trees,” neighbor Christine Kankwenda, 64, said. “It’s like a coincidence because [it was] at this time he was killed.”

His wife and two daughters, Alisa Weinstein, 41, and Jennifer Coakley, 43, last embraced Weinstein in the summer of 2011 — mere weeks before he was kidnapped, friends said.

Weinstein had taken a vacation from his work in Pakistan with the US Agency for International Development to celebrate his 70th birthday here with loved ones, and told them he was preparing to return home for good after seven years abroad, friend Suvita Melehy, 48, said.

“He was happy to come home, his grandkids were growing, his wife was missing him,” Melehy said.